Tag

C is currently in love with Leap Frog's Tag Reading System.  I am impressed with it myself.  He loves using the pen to read each word, and he enjoys playing the games too. 

I was concerned that the pen might be difficult to use or that he would get frustrated with it, but that has not been the case at all.  He can use it himself and he loves it!  Hooray!  I love learning tools that are also fun toys.

More Snow People

C, R, and I made "snow dough" using a recipe from My Montessori Journey.  The recipe is posted below.  I did not add any food coloring to the dough because we wanted it to look like snow.  I added 1 teaspoon of almond extract to make it smell good, and a few teaspoons of silver glitter to make the "snow" sparkle.  They used the dough to make snow people.

In this photo, you can really see the silver glitter that we added to make our "snow dough" sparkle.

Here is R's snow lady:

Here is C's snowman:

The red buttons in the dough formed a sled, the green buttons formed a bush, the yellow button is the sun in front of a cloud, and the pink pipe cleaner formed the handle of a purse.  I'm not sure why C's snowman has a purse, maybe he is carrying it for his wife! 

This is the recipe we used: 
Homemade Play dough
1 c. flour
1/2 cup salt
1 T. cooking oil
1 T. cream of tartar
1 c. water
Food coloring (optional - for snow dough omit the food coloring)
Add-ins of your choice (i.e. spices, extracts, glitter, etc.)
Stir ingredients together well.  Just measure them into the saucepan you will be using to cook the dough, but mix them well before heating up the pan.  Over medium heat cook the dough, stirring constantly until it forms a ball.  (NOTE:  When it starts to pull away from the sides somewhat and clump together and most of the "wet-looking" parts look dry, it's ready to remove from the pan.)  Turn dough onto a board (or the counter) and knead until very smooth.  (NOTE:  It will be pretty warm to the touch, but try to knead it until it becomes a nice, smooth ball.  If it feels sticky, you can work a little more flour into it and it will be fine.)  Cool.  Store in a covered plastic container OR in a sealed ziploc bag.

As I noted above, I added 1 tsp of almond extract just to make it smell good, and a few teaspoons of silver glitter to make the "snow dough" sparkly.

Finding Hawaii on the Globe

I love this inflatable globe.  It is from Learning Resources and comes with an activity guide.  In this photo, C is pointing to the Hawaiian islands.  I wanted to buy a regular globe, but they are SO EXPENSIVE!  This inflatable version does the job and it was $9.99 from Amazon.com.  Plus, we can play catch with the world.

Welcome Home!

C was very happy to see his Flat Stanley return home safe and sound.  Stanley returned with some great souvenirs from his travels.  He had a postcard with a caribou on the front from Alaska, a map of New York, Australian play money, Australian flags, and a little koala bear holding a boomerang.  Stanley had some great adventures, but C is very happy that he is home now!

A Great Reward!

C and R have done a great job staying in their beds all night, so Dad (that's him without his head in the background!) set up a sundae bar as a reward.  As you can see, they had lots of toppings to choose from.

The sundae bar was a huge success!

Crazy Hair

Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman and David McKean is a book about a man with really crazy hair that has never been cut.  A girl suggests that he take a comb to his hair, and he tells her in rhyming fashion why this is not possible.  His hair is the home for all sorts of creatures and objects - carousels, pirate ships, blue octopi, birds and comb-eating bears.  When the girl decides to comb his hair, a huge arm pulls her into that crazy hair.  She lives in there quite happily, believe it or not.

I read this book at the library, and questioned whether to bring it home.  I thought it was a little strange, maybe even a bit scary, and I did not think my kids would like it.  I was wrong.  They think it is hysterical!

This book is so unusual that we just had to make a little crazy hair ourselves.  We began by drawing faces and then added some crazy hair.  We also added some crazy creatures to live in the crazy hair.

Here is the face and crazy hair that R drew:

Here it is after she made it really crazy with some curly ribbon and licorice laces for hair, and a few dinosaurs and animals to live in that crazy hair:

For some reason, I did not get a before photo of the face C drew, but here is C's person with crazy hair:

They had fun with this book.  They also had fun eating the licorice laces!

Hurry Up and Slow Down

Hurry Up and Slow Down by Layn Marlow is a spin-off of "The Tortoise and the Hare".  The story follows the two characters over the course of a day.  Hare is always in a hurry, and Tortoise prefers to take his time.  At the end of the day, however, Tortoise is anxious to drink his chamomile tea and tries to rush through the bedtime story that Hare asked him to read.  When Hare says, "Hurry up and slow down," Tortoise looks longingly at his tea, but realizes what is most important and decides to read the entire book again.

I love this book.  C and R love it too.  The characters are cute, the illustrations are pretty, the text is perfect in length for preschool to young elementary aged children, and the message is one we all need to remember!  This is one of those books that just warms your heart when you read it.  We will definitely be borrowing this book from the library on a regular basis!